Teacher appointments cancelled in North-East

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 January 2002, 23:16 GMT]
"The cancellation of three thousand Tamil medium teacher appointments has caused severe setback to northeast education," said Mr.R.Sampanthan, Trincomalee District Parliamentarian Monday in a letter of protest to the United National Front (UNF) government. His letter followed the withdrawal of the approval granted by the government for the recruitment of three thousand Tamil medium teachers to fill school vacancies in the Tamil dominated North East province.

The Education Services Committee (ESC) of the Public Service Commission notified the North East Provincial Ministry of Education that the approval had been withdrawn according to a Cabinet decision of the new government. The notification said that all appointments made between the date of dissolution of parliament and the date of election of the new parliament should be cancelled.

"The communication of the ESC has rendered invalid all steps hitherto taken by the North East provincial authorities to remedy the severe teacher shortage in northeast Tamil medium schools. As of now there are 4,500 Tamil medium teacher vacancies in the northeast province," said Mr.R.Sampanthan.

Mr.Sampanthan further brought to the notice of the UNF government that, "all authorities in the Educational Service, whether at the national level or the provincial level are well aware, that these 3,000 appointments of Tamil medium teachers in the northeast were being made to fill a genuine shortage. Even after all these 3000 appointments are made, a further 1,500 teacher shortage will prevail as of now. The decision to appoint three thousand teachers in northeast Tamil medium schools was taken by the previous government on the basis of a genuine shortage of such category and not for any political purposes."

Mr.Sampanthan has appealed to the UNF government to grant authority without delay to the provincial authorities in the northeast to proceed with the appointment of the said 3,000 teachers.